For a long time, since years and years ago, I have wanted to read light novels. Not every book gets its own anime series and even for those that did, the anime usually could cover only the first few volumes and rarely all the way to the end. Thus, if one is a fan of a series that was originally a light novel series, one would have to read the light novels to know the story beyond the anime. Although this applies to manga as well, manga is a lot easier (and more fun) to read than light novels. So, for the month of May, I received one package, a single set of loots. Without any additional babble, let’s go straight to seeing what the loots are.

Early this month, I purchased the light novel set of:

アクセル・ワールド １～１６ Accel World Vol.1 ~ 16

Since January of this year, when I lightheartedly borrowed the novels of Bakemonogatari and realized that not only could I read the novels with decent speed, but also enjoyed doing so, I decided that I want to start reading the light novels of another series in addition to the Monogatari series. After watching the Sword Art Online movie in February, I thought about reading SAO, but surely SAO will get more anime. However, another series I like just as much as SAO and also written by the very same author, is Accel World, which sadly will probably not get another anime season. And with that, I decided on reading Accel World.

This set of novels from volume 1 to 16 is not the entire set that has been released to date. As of the time of writing, the series is still ongoing, being written concurrently with SAO. The latest volume of Accel World is currently at vol.21 (with SAO at vol.19). Accel World had only one season of anime, which covered the contents up to vol.4 of the novels. That means the new parts of the story that I want to read are from vol.5 and onward. I will buy vol.17 and beyond whenever I catch up.

The cover art of each book from volume 1 to 16. The back cover of each book also has a chibi illustration of a character.

It is a strangely nice feeling looking at this alignment of books with their cover arts. Never had I thought that I would ever own a collection of light novels. These covers are really teasing me because I am incredibly curious about the story beyond the anime. Each book is on average a little over 300 pages, and it takes me about 3 weeks to a month of reading daily to finish one volume. Estimating based on that rate, it will take me over a year to read up to vol.16 …